in general, knows any of these transactions. All this would be a proof, but mere invective is none; and, if you compel my antagonist, judges, to prove the very facts, which he has averred to be true, you will make a pious decree according to the laws, and my clients will obtain fubftantial justice.

THERE were three brothers, Eupolis, Thrasyllus, and Mneson; the youngest of whom died without issue: the second left a son named APOLLODORUS. Eupolis, the surviving brother, was appointed guardian to his nephew, and had two daughters living, one of whom was married to Eschines, the other to Pronapis, the complainant in this cause.

The widow of Thrasyllus married Archedamus, who, perceiving that Apollodorus, his wife's son, was injured by his guardian, assisted him in applying to a court of justice, and obtained redress for him in two actions. This Archedamus had a daughter by the mother of Apollodorus, and that daughter, who married Lacratides, had a son, whom Apollodorus, on the death of his own son, adopted in his lifetime, and caused to be registered in the books of his kindred and ward by the name of Thrasyllus.

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APOLLODORUS died; and Pronapis, in right of his wife, claimed the estate of the deceased, alledging that Thrasyllus was not entered in the register according to the true intent of his uncle, but that the adoption was a mere fiction and artifice.

The cause is, in the language of the Ancients, conjectural; or, in the dialect of our bar, it is an issue, " Whether Thrasyllus was really adopted by Apollodorus, or not."

SPEECH THE SIXTH.

Thrafyllus againft Pronapis.

I DID imagine, judges, that such adoptions as were made by a man in his perfect fenfes, who had conducted his adopted fon to the shrine of his ancestors, had presented him to his kinfmen, had inferted his name in their common register, and had performed in person all the ufual ceremonies, were not to be controverted in a court of juftice; but that, if a man, apprehensive of his approaching end, had bequeathed his eftate to another, had fealed his teftament, and committed it to the care of a friend, the validity of his will might afterwards be justly disputed; fince by the former mode of alienation the intent of the party is openly manifested, and the whole transaction made valid by the law, while the intention of a teftator, being more fecretly and obfcurely expreffed, is liable to fufpicion; whence many have contended against the claimants under a will, that the inftrument itself was forged and void: but I now perceive this diftinction to be of little avail; for, though my adoption was a fact of general notoriety, yet the daughter of Eupolis with. her husband and

their advocates come to conteft my right to the poffeffions of Apollodorus.

Now had I obferved, that you were better pleased with the oblique form of a proteftation than with a direct courfe of proceeding, I could have produced witneffes to prove that my right was incontestable; because I am the fon of the deceased by a regular adoption; but as I am fenfible that the true merits of the cause cannot be known by this method, I come to inform you of the whole tranfaction, and fhall thus preclude them from the power of imputing to me an unwillingness to meet them on the fairest ground: I will demonftrate then, not only that the many injuries, which Apollodorus had fuftained from his nearest relations, prevented him from leaving his fortune to them, but that he legally and juftly adopted me, who am his nephew, and the son of his greatest benefactor.

I entreat you all, judges, to indulge me with a benevolent hearing; and, if I convince you, that these affociates have most audaciously claimed an estate to which they have no colour of title, affift me in obtaining juftice: I will speak as concisely as I am able, in relating the whole affair from the beginning of it.

Eupolis, judges, Thrafyllus, and Mneson, had the fame father and mother; and their patrimony, which they divided equally among them